My dad recently came back from Afghanistan where he had a project to do. He was showing me pictures of the places he travelled to and it was interesting and mind-blowing to compare living in Europe and in the Middle East. Different houses, language, food, clothes, habits, religion. See, Europe is a small continent where we have a lot of diversity between all the countries but in the end we are still very European and by that I mean similar in certain ways. We have a common history that binds a lot of nations together. But then as soon as you change continents you see what the world has to offer. You find entirely different cultures altogether.
 |
| Image from http://2.bp.blogspot.com |
When I mentioned to anyone where he was travelling to you could see the flicker of fear in their eyes. And not just because of the war that was going on there but because of their religion. Unfortunately what most of us know about Islam is not very positive and I blame a lot of that on the media. We have been given a picture of their culture and I'm afraid it's not completely true. Ah, the power of the mass media.
When it comes to diversity what you really need is an open mind. It does you a great disservice if you go somewhere with a lot of prejudices. I find that westerners in general (North America, Europe) are sure that their culture is the only one that really matters and therefore better than everyone else's. I think about this every time I hear something on the news about how in Africa they are so undeveloped or how women are deprived in the Middle East. I believe that we should respect every culture and not try to fix them to suit ours. Are we better than them because we have a billion electronic devices and clothes that we don't really need and a number of other material things? Are we better because we have an educational system? Are we better because women can go out in public dressed how they like? Are we better because women can choose to marry anyone they like? No. It's wonderful that we have the liberty and the choice of doing all these things and we should be happy and grateful for them but it doesn't make us better than them. Take away the culture and what remains is a human being. And we are all the same.
 |
| Image from http://www.orgsites.com |
I'm not saying that I like the fact that women have to wear burqas because of their religion or that children in certain countries can't go to schools but I respect the fact that it's their life and their culture. Lets not try to change others to fit our idea of what people should be like and should or shouldn't do. I can't seem to shake the idea that maybe they are happier than us even though they have different values than we do. Material things and the want for them clouds our minds sometimes. We live in a society that values success and beauty and money above all. Sure, we all want to have love and friendship but if you ask people what they want the most it's money. In other cultures it's family. There are so many misconceptions about different cultures because we want to believe that we are better. That is the ugly truth. We don't even try to understand.
We have to learn to respect the difference and accept it. Don't get me wrong, when there are human rights being violated in the name of religion or culture be that in America, Africa, Asia, Europe, I am the first to stand up to that. There are some core rights like life, liberty, dignity that are untouchable and no one should ever violate them. Just understand that violations like that don't happen 5000 km away from you but also around the corner. See all the bullying in America that led to a shocking number of suicide among teenagers. What about their right to dignity and respect?
We are privileged. Most of us live in a country where we can go to school, get a job, choose a boyfriend/girlfriend, choose our friends, decide what to wear. Lets not take it for granted and remember don't judge before you know all the facts. Treat people the way you want them to treat you.
Goodbye world.
No comments:
Post a Comment